Conventional electrical ovens normally provide a control panel containing control switches and devices, timers, and various indicators. To facilitate and simplify the repair and maintenance of these control devices, heretofore developed ovens have provided control panels pivotally mounted on extensible arms. A control panel mounted in this manner may be extended and rotated to provide servicemen with easy access to devices located in the panel. An example of such an accessible control panel is described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,967,164, issued June 29, 1976, and assigned to the present assignee. However, such prior panel mounting technique has been relatively expensive to manufacture due to the many parts involved, and have also sometimes required more maintenance than desirable. Furthermore, the design of many previously developed extensible oven control panels has been found undesirable in that it tended to encourage servicemen to apply their weight thereto for support, thereby causing damage to the extensible structure.
Typically, oven control panels have been mounted generally above the cooking chamber in the oven. It has been discovered that electrical devices in prior control panels are often not sufficiently isolated from their environment. Cooking fumes and grease laden gases tend to enter such control panels during normal oven operation and interfere with or damage electrical control devices contained therein. Thus, a need has arisen for an extensible oven control panel that sufficiently isolates control devices from the surrounding environment.